Our last morning with the girls got off to an early start, a gentle tapping on the bedroom door at seven o’clock ensured that we got up in time to go to school. Breakfasts and lunches, school bags ready, all the things I haven’t had to partake in for several decades! Jo and I packed our bags too, then followed Liz and the girls into Yass to the school where Sammie happily showed us around, then leaving her we walked across the block to the preschool and had another escorted tour around the playground and a demonstration of the monkey-bars.
A last hour or so to spend sitting in the cool autumnal air with a coffee, Tom spent most of the time asleep while Liz and Jo and I could talk, then briefly Colin came across the road from where he was working at the fire station for his coffee break. Time for one last walk around the block admiring the old buildings and pubs of Yass before all too soon it was time to get in the car for the long drive back to Melbourne.
Hot, dusty and dry all the way from Yass down south, the few traces of green we saw from Gunning to Goulburn yesterday didn’t make it this far west.
Lunch in the park in Holbrook, two magnificent salad rolls from the bakery and two very messy pieces of apple slice, sugar, pastry and apple-goo everywhere.
There must have been something in the air this afternoon, after a very enjoyable three hours cruising south through NSW from Yass to the border we entered Victoria and entered the land of stupidity.
With all the emphasis in Victoria on speeding, speed limits and speed cameras, it seems that every person on the road is now completely obsessed about their speed — to the exclusion of all else. Rather than a spread of cars on the road travelling between 90 and 120km/hr we seemed to meet tightly packed bunches all travelling at identical speeds, and all travelling ridiculously close to each other.
Of course every idiot in his 4WD towing his ski boat, trail bikes or jet ski was there tail-gating and intimidating any driver in a normal vehicle, or swerving through the tightly packed bunches of cars waggling the trailer like a demented tail.
Somehow we managed to get home safely, only twice did it get really threatening, both times someone in the lane beside me put on their indicator and tried to drive straight into the side of the car without looking! The first was a stereotypical bloke in his 4WD, why bother looking when you know your vehicle is bigger and obviously has right of way? The second was a learner driver, just drove up the freeway on-ramp and straight into the traffic — I think she might try looking next time.
